Fred Hartman Bridge

The Fred Hartman Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge in the U.S. state of Texas, spanning the Houston Ship Channel. The bridge carries 2.6 miles (4 km) of State Highway 146, between the cities of Baytown and La Porte (east of Houston). It is expected to carry State Highway 99, the Grand Parkway when it is completed around Houston.The bridge, named for Fred Hartman (1908–1991), the editor and publisher of the Baytown Sun from 1950 to 1974, is the longest cable-stayed bridge in Texas, and one of only four such bridges in the state, the others being Veterans Memorial Bridge in Orange County, Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in Dallas and Bluff Dale Suspension Bridge in Erath County. It is the seventy-seventh largest bridge in the world. The construction cost of the bridge was $91.25 million.The bridge replaced the Baytown Tunnel (of depth clearance 40ft). The tunnel had to be removed when the Houston Ship Channel was deepened to 45ft, with a minimum 530ft bottom width, to accommodate larger ships. The last section of the Baytown Tunnel was removed from the Houston Ship Channel on September 14, 1999, with removal of the tunnel being the responsibility of the Texas Department of Transportation.